The Development of a Survey Research Proposal 2022

The development of a survey that is used for assessing the driving safety of Queensland
drivers
Student’s name (First name, Last name):
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Date:
Title of research proposal: The development of a survey that is used for assessing the driving
safety of Queensland drivers
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Total word count (excluding in-text references, the reference list, and this title page): 2128
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Executive Summary
The main topic of the study is whether older drivers are safe to continue driving. The paper
narrows down the scope of the topic of being a safe driver. Older persons have several
issues that disqualify them from being safe drivers. Since, as an individual year's increases,
the person’s joints and muscles become stiff. The muscles may also weaken, conditions
like arthritis is also common among older persons who might affect muscle coordination
and the ability to drive. Such conditions make it difficult for an individual to turn their
head looking back, safe breaking, and quick steering. Being a safe driver will reduce the
risk associated with an accident or car crash which can endanger the life of the driver
among others. The components of being a safe driver are: You; the driver must be alert
and stay engaged, as the driver, you can only control yourself. Being engaged and alert
requires the driver to consider components like Cognition. Cognizant; the driver must
mentally stay engaged factors like talking on the phone, reading maps and texting or eating
should be stopped since such activities might make driver’s mind to shift from the main
activity which is driving. Visual: the driver must see the road, road traffic conditions as
well as pedestrian. Manual; it requires that both of driver’s hand be on the steering wheel if
the driver takes his or her hands off the steering wheel might affect their ability for
controlling the vehicles. Such as radio adjustments, texting, eating makeup application and
shaving. Audial: that is the ability to hear sounds as well as the emergency vehicles
sounds. Listening to music on headphones is illegal since it reduces the driver’s audio. The
other component is vehicle: the driver should ensure that vehicle is in good condition for
safe driving.
The psychometric property for the 68 Safe Driving Behaviour Measure items, by the use of
70 older drivers, 70 caregivers as well as two evaluators from two locations.

Through the use of Rasch exploration, we are examining the uni-dimensionality as well as
the confined dependency: like evaluation scale, item and individual-level psychometrics,
the older driver’s hierarchy, evaluators who completed the Safe Driving Behaviour
Measure as well as the caregivers. From the evidence, there is a suggestion that safe
driving behavior measure (SDBM) is one-dimensional, while the pair of items are showing
local dependency. From the three groups of rating, the data is showing that a good person
≥3.4 while item is ≥3.6 good person and the separation makes up ≥.93while the reliability
of item is ≥.92. Cronbach α was ≥.96, while there were some misfitting of items. Some
items didn’t follow the order of according to hypothesis.

Aims and Significance
 The key subject area is to assess if older drivers are safe to continue driving
 The topic has been narrowed down to the title being a safe driver.
 The problem linked to the title is to find out whether the older drivers can become
safe driver, owing to their experience in driving, or the old age health conditions
can hamper the driving skills of an individual.
 Being safe driving is very significant for drivers and other road users. Defensive
driver concentrates both on his actions and anticipates the possible action of the
other road users.
 Defensive driving reduces the probability of dangers related to driving.
 It saves on cost that is related to the maintenance of the vehicle.
 Awareness is key for safe driving, ensuring that driver has sufficient time make
appropriate decisions and pro-active action for avoiding the incidents.
 Extending the vehicle’s lifespan, performance, the running cost, and the driver
would not need to buy another car due to mechanical problems.
 Being a safe driver can affect the quantity of fuel that an individual is using weekly
(Fildes, Fitzharris, Charlton, and Pronk, 2001).
 A safe driver will always be attentive of the speed limit while driving on the roads.
 The old habits die hard; to change poor driving behavior is very difficult since the
risky driving habits cannot disappear overnight.
 Approximately 87% of drivers have been involved in some risky behavior while
driving monthly. Texting and aggressive driving are some of the common and
unsafe driving behaviour which put the fleet at high risk. Gaining information
concerning the behavior of the drivers is important in streamlining effort and the
time spent while correcting the risky behavior of drivers — the forefront insight

help in addressing the poor driving behavior by breaking them into biteable lumps.
Background Information
Monitoring driver’s behavior: bad driving behaviors can only be addressed after
recognizing what bad habits are — such excessive acceleration or using the phone while
driving. Developing a baseline: it is the establishment of the starting point for the
performance of the fleet drivers for measuring their progress and comparing over time. It
entails measuring initial drivers and overall scores for a given period for use as benchmark
comparing them to future scores of drivers. Concentrating the resources; it’s better to
concentrate on the high risks driver as they can put the fleet at the greatest possible risk.
While addressing high-risk driver it is important to acknowledge and praising low-risk
drivers for reinforcing positive behaviors (Khanipour, Tavallaii, and Ahmadi, 2015).
Identify poor driving habits: There are several bad driving habits that an individual will
observe recurringly with the drivers like distracted driving, speeding and aggressive
driving, it’s important to save time by addressing such problems through training and
education. Such behaviors will be less common with time. Educating and coaching drivers:
the driver’s habit can only change through training and education. When the drivers
develop awareness for poor habits as well as safety risks, the drivers can identify the
correct habits themselves. Safety in professional driving: Globally, there is an estimation
that over 1.24 million individuals perish yearly in road accidents. Large trucks are
responsible for the large share of traffic deaths. Most of the accidents occur in the
highways that pass where there is dense population. The high probability of road accidents
shows the importance of research into risk factors for road accidents among professional

drivers. The risk factor has been categorized into three: Vehicle characteristic, driver
characteristic and environmental characteristic (Khan, and Selamat, 2018).Vehicle
characteristic entails physical vehicle characteristics, truck loading capacity, maintenance
state, absence and presence of electronic logbook. Environmental characteristic entails
traffic conditions, infrastructure, enforcement activities, and safety regulations. In driver
characteristic, we have personal traits and risky driving habits. The factor that is considered
under driver’s characteristic is the age of the driver. For instance, older drivers have slower
response to hazard compared to younger drivers. At the same time, the more experienced
drivers view themselves as highly skilled in vehicle handling. However, they are less
capable of safe driving (Rosli, Yunus, and Hanan, 2017). Driving safely is linked to factors
that are driver related like alcohol and drug use, using a cell phone, fatigue, driver’s health,
and the driver’s personality. The violation of speed is related to driving behavior, which
are suitable measures for risky driving habits. The DBS (decisional balance scale), is
developed for assessing the attitude of older drivers. It comprises of interpersonal and
intrapersonal driving motivations. The study examined the psychometric properties rating
along 3 points from a sample of 298 older drivers who were a participant in the Canadian
Driving research Initiatives which was organized for vehicle safety. There is an increasing
concern about older driver safety as a result of age-related illnesses which might affect the
older driver’s capacity to effectively control their vehicle and increasing the risk of car
crash, among other unsafe driving habits. There is evidence that reveals that older drivers
might gladly regulate driving reducing the risk on the road. Motivating older drivers to
engage in self-regulatory driving practices, investigation focused on the social and
cognitive processes like the optimistic social appraisal as well as the perceived control:
self-efficacy and confidence, and the driver’s attitude as derived from behavior change
theories. The (DHQ) driving habit Questionnaire is a common instrument that can be used

when assessing the driving behavior such as general driving practices, depending on other
drivers, driving difficulty. The DHQ demonstrates construct test-retest, and validity
reliability about the older driver (Rosli, Yunus, and Hanan, 2017). The key problem areas
associated with safe driving are speeding, older driver might think they understand the road
more, therefore they might not consider their speed. Fatigue; older drivers could develop
the joint problems associated with arthritis which can make the driver lack proper
coordination necessary for safe driving. Distraction is another factor that which could arise
due to texting or cell phone use or listening to music on headphones that can hinder an
individual perception while driving.

Proposed Test/Test Battery and Rationale
The battery test design will be assessing the aberrant driving behavior through the use of
Driver Behaviour Questionnaire. The questionnaire comprises of ten violations items.
Seven error as well as eight lapse items. The participants are therefore asked the frequency
with which they are committing wrong behavior on a Likert scale of five points 1) hardly
ever, 2) seldom, 3) habitually, 4) Repeatedly, 5) nearly all the time. The questionnaire can
be distributed through the intercept method of surveys in the highways to the motorist. The
questionnaire can be given out to participants with cover letter which have stamp for
returning envelop after anonymous response are given (Rosli, Yunus, and Hanan, 2017).
Experimental design will be used where independent measures are used, implying that
different participants are used for every condition of independent variable. It will be used
by various government and non-governmental organizations that are concerned with safe
driving. That will increase the fleet lifespan and performance. Every driver who has gone
through the questionnaire will tend to remember those questions and the incidents and they
will have more likelihood of doing the right thing. Hence, it will increase the safe driving.
Study Design
In another study conducted in Kharazmi University that includes taxi drivers as well as
students who were selected for convenience sampling technique. The criteria for inclusion
required the participants to be 20 years and above and could drive a vehicle at least once a
week. Some of the participants enrolled in the study through the web-based survey that
focuses on driving behaviors while others have finished the self-report surveys. By the end

of the sampling, a total of 147 persons had met the necessary responses required for
statistical analysis.
Validation
The validity of the study was addressing the psychometrical feature for the new instrument
that is used for evaluating the anxiety of the driver. From all the existing instruments,
Driver Behaviour Survey was designated and then interpreted into Persian. The final copy
was sent to the psychologist and psychiatric for checking the translation compatibility with
original text in English. There was another revision of the translation and the evaluation of
the internal consistency, convergent validity, factor structure as well as divergent validity
for the Driver Behaviour survey.
Reliability
For every Driver Behaviour Survey subscale, Cronbach’s alpha reliability is calculated.
The Cronbach’s alpha for the whole scale was 0.68, with 0.77 for the initial factor, 0.70 for
the second while for the third factor, it was 0.65. There was zero correlation between
subscale for trait anger, anxiety, and traffic violation among other driving errors. The
results show that DBS score is related to unpremeditated violation while driving.

Test Evaluation: Assessment of Reliability and Validity
The Driver Behaviour Questionnaire is very reliable since the concept has been applied in
various studies concerning:
 Correlation between crash involvement and self-proclaimed aberrant
behaviors.
 Risky behavior among young drivers.
There are key components of the traffic system as well as their limitations, motivation,
needs, and constrain. The alertness level of an individual and their personality defines
one’s behavior on the road. There was a research investigating validity as well as reliability
DBQ for Portuguese version. Through the use of confirmatory and exploratory analysis in
the population of Portuguese. The results show that DBQ in Portuguese version is reliable
and valid measure for the self-reclaim driver behavior (Wishart, Freeman, and Davey,
2006). The reliability of Driver behavior is not constant as a result of variation in the
Driver Behaviour Survey test. Hence, the hypothesis is that various test comprises of
minimal internal consistency that applies to broad understanding of safe driving for older
driver, that is inappropriate when the results are provided through module analysis
(Freeman et al., 2009). Constraints related to the reliability for the self-report crash that is
used in current study which is even more susceptible to under-reporting crash. Due to
biases of social responsibility as well as the perceived issues related to aberrant driving
behaviors.
Conclusions
The finding of the study is suggesting that DBQ is applicable in safe driving for any

regional fleet setting. Factors determining safe driving are vehicle characteristics,
environmental, and driver characteristic. However, Driver behavior plays an important part
in safe driving. The DBQ concept is valid such that most of the institution issuing the
drivers driving license makes it mandatory for drivers to participate in the DBQ survey
before getting permission to renew their driving license.

References
Fildes, B., Fitzharris, M., Charlton, J., & Pronk, N. (2011). Older Driver Safety: A
Challenge For Sweden's" Vision Zero"?. In Australasian Transport Research
Forum (Atrf), 24th, 2001, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Freeman, J. E., Wishart, D. E., Davey, J. D., Rowland, B. D., & Williams, R. (2009).
Utilizing the driver behavior questionnaire in an Australian organizational fleet
setting: can it identify risky drivers? Journal of the Australasian College of Road
Safety, 20(2), 38-45.
Khan, W., & Selamat, S. A. M. (2018, July). A Safety Transport Model for Validation of
UK Coach Operators for School Journeys. In Intelligent Transport Systems–From
Research and Development to the Market Uptake: First International Conference,
INTSYS 2017, Hyvinkää, Finland, November 29-30, 2017, Proceedings (Vol. 222,
p. 183). Springer.
Khanipour, H., Tavallaii, S. A., & Ahmadi, K. (2015). Psychometric properties of the
driving behavior survey among Iranian drivers. Practice in Clinical
Psychology, 3(4), 259-266.
Rosli, N. S., Yunus, J. M., & Hanan, S. A. (2017). Testing The Driving Behaviour
Questionnaire (Dbq) On Malaysian Drivers.
Wishart, D. E., Freeman, J. E., & Davey, J. D. (2016). Utilizing the Driver Behaviour
Questionnaire in an Organisational Fleet Setting: Are Modifications
Required. Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 17(2), 31-38.